*¦ GENEEAL EEPOET. 21 feet we meet the heavily timbered ridges of the Zuni Mountain Plateau. Here the flora presents a marked change, Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga Dou¬ glasii, and Abies concolor, with here and there a straggling Oak-tree, make up the tree flora of the higher parts, whilst at lower levels the Piiion Pine and the Western form of our Eastern Juniper appears. Damp ravines, swamps, and running brooks give chance for the growth of grasses, Junci, and Carices. Beautiful Pentstemons confer an unusual charm to the scenery, all the greater because of the desert country we have passed through to reach this range. The main trend of this chain is from the present Fort Wingate toward the southeast to a point to the west of and some thirty miles from Limita on the Rio Grande at Ojo de la Rosa, where the outlying spurs join with those of the Sierra del Datil coming in from the southwest. The triangle of land thus enclosed is dry, but not always level. Mountain-chains of short length run here and there; water is only moderately plenty, and the timberless character of even the more elevated parts is in strong contrast with the description given by Lieut. C. C. Morrison of the Zuni Mountains: "Following the axial line was a wide valley running nearly the entire length of the range, abounding in the most beautiful glades with bunch- grass 18 inches high, standing as thick as it could grow, here and there rooted out in the damper places by red and white clover. The Zuni Mountains are a low range, reaching in no place much over 9,000 feet." From these mountains south we again enter a region more or less desert in its character, the only timber being the Pinon Pine and Juniperus. Here and there water may be found as at Zuni and Deer Spring and Cave Spring. In the damper areas, luxuriant growths of sedges and the common Mimulus luteus showed what the capacity of the soil was. In this area, an occasional basin may be found in which corn, etc, can be raised without irrigation. Such a one was observed just south of Zuni. The probable explanation is that a sub-soil of clay retains the moisture which is drained in from the higher grounds around, and the dry, sandy soil allows the seed to be planted a foot deep to meet the ascending moisture without being rotted in its somewhat prolonged struggle upward into sunlight. Some¬ times for miles, as in a valley south of Deer Spring, the soil is actually a